The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-12

lion TO relleVe the wants and alleviate
the distress of suffering humanity.
Man can have bat little difficulty in de-
who is his neighbor. The
parable of the Good Samaritan fur
nishes an easy solution of that question
and furnishes a striking example as to
who are the objects Of human charity.
1t has been said that no man can live
up to the rigid purity and strict JUS
tice required by the system of Christ
ianity but 1 affirm that, as code Of
morals, stripped of its theological cloth
ing, it demands nothing but that which
is easy and natural. When once the
principle of love to God is fixed in the
heart, all other duties flow as natural
consequence. We even, then, find it
easy to love an enemy, which it prompts
US to do; but the measure of that love
is nowhere prescribed. No man can
love his enemy as he would his neigh
Dor. "Who was neighbor to him who
fell among the thieves ?" The Phari-
sees had no difficulty in answering this
question, and the man who cannot love
his ''neighbor as himself has not the
elements of manhood in him. Doubt
less ''the man who fell among thieves"
had no difficulty in loving his benefac-
tor, the Good Samaritan, las himself"
but he was not under like obligation
to love the thieves who maltreated him,
nor the priest, nor the Levite who failed
to relieve him, las HIMSELF nor does
God require it of any of his creatures.
The measure of our love to our enemies
is not prescribed by Christ, for the
reason that it must be determined by
the degree of their Offense toward us !;
for since MISREPRESENTATION is the first
law of nature, - it follows that to resent
an injury, if done without malice afore-
thought, is as meritorious as to love
ones neighbor las HIMSELF; for the
reason that the same love which in
duces US to protect our neighbor will
also induce us to protect ourselves-a
man must be as just to himself as be is
to his neighbor. Then why seek the
living among the dead =?
About religion there can be no diff
ferences Of opinion. Men of all creeds
and men of no creeds, are agreed that
purity and an upright life in the con-
duct of men with men, are necessary to
their happiness; and men of every
creed admit that men of a different
creed can be equally good and virtuous
with themselves. Hence religion is
essential. Theology is not but it by NO
means follows that theology is neither
profitable nor useful. The one import
ant lesson which l would here impress
is the folly of putting the cart before
the horse of making theology test
of church membership. To uphold the
dignity Of a creed the church will ex-
communicate dissenting member =
will exclude him from its pale for that
which it must and does acknowledge
cannot exclude him from the king
dom of grace and glory" thereby bind.
ing ON earth what shall be /" loosed
in heaven" Why seek the living among
the dead ?
There is constant and a growing
tendency on the part of theology to re-
model itself; each age witnesses its
nearer approach to real religious truth;
but there is yet wide and distinctive
difference between it and real religion.
Religion is as old as man and as i'm
mutable as the principles of right and
wrong. Theology is capricious and ar
bitrary. 1t is the creature of an age, to
be called into service, or dismissed, as
the occasion requires. Between relig-
ion ana science there never has been,
and, in the nature of things, never can
be any conflict. Between theology and
science there always has been more or
less conflict. Religion is as unchange-
able and as immutable as God himself
but theology is compelled to shape it.
self to meet the requirements of demon
strated scientific truth. Theology, with
its ''horrible Decree" could be heartily
believed by John Calvin; but the en-
lightened Christian of to-day, even of
the ''same faith and ORDER" takes ga
milder view" of the ''decree" and sees
in it less of "horror." The theology of
the past, which taught the existence Of
literal fire and birthstone for the lost
souls of the wicked, sees, in the light
of modern science, the impossibility of
bringing the intangible in contact with
the tangible; and the doubt once adj
mitted, the relentless fury of an aveng-
ing God" gives place to the more hu-
name and religious idea of an all-con-
quering love, which must eventually
unite justice and mercy, when fright
eousness and peace shall kiss each
other" The theology of the past, which
taught that the world was Hat, that it
did not turn, and that the sun was
made to stand still, and which was
ready to put Calico to the rack for
teaching otherwise, has been compelled
to accept as true what it once denounced
as heresy. Liberalism is fast giving